Raziel (Soul Reaver 2 boss)
Soul Reaver 2 (2001) |race =Humans |class = Soul Reaver 2 'bosses' |era = Nosgoth's early history |territories = Chapter House, Sarafan Stronghold |leaders = Malek |affiliation = Sarafan (Nosgoth's early history), Sarafan warrior inquisitors |temperament = Hostile to Raziel(wraith) |weapons = Sarafan Long sword |abilities = exceptional combat abilities; powerful and aggressive, strong defense, frequent blocking and lunges |vulnerabilities= counters, sidesteps |blood = Red |soul = Yes – cannot be consumed |realm = Material Realm |appearances = • }} In the final areas of Soul Reaver 2, shortly after retrieving the Reaver, Raziel faced the Sarafan Sarafan warrior inquisitors in a set of encounters through the Sarafan Stronghold. Defeating his former brethren in turn, Raziel was finally faced by the Sarafan Inquisitor Raziel - his former human self - as the 'final boss' of Soul Reaver 2. Role After witnessing the death of Janos Audron at the hands of the Sarafan warrior inquisitor group and recognizing his former human self was responsible for the act. Raziel pursued them as they retreated to the Sarafan Stronghold carrying with them the Heart of Darkness and Reaver blade. Infiltrating the stronghold, Raziel was able to recover the Reaver during a brief confrontation with Malek and Moebius but soon found himself channeled into combat with the inquisitors themselves. Initially he was confronted with Melchiah and Zephon in the Cloister and then met Rahab and Dumah in the nave of Sanctuary, before defeating Turel in the choir. When Raziel progressed into the Chapter House, the exits were again sealed and he was faced with a confrontation with his former human self. Unlike other 'boss' battles in the series, the battles with the inquisitors had no puzzle aspect to them and were treated the same as any regular combat encounter - albeit against incredibly powerful opposition and with Raziel invincible due to the effects of the Reaver. At a distance all the inquisitors would walk slowly, while in direct combat Sarafan Raziel had power, speed, health and defensive capabilities far exceeding that of ordinary enemies, and even exceeding the subordinate inquisitors. Armed with a sarafan sword, Raziel was a close-range fighter (broadly comparable to Sarafan warrior swordsmen), attacking viciously and often with a series of deadly sword strikes, frequent lunges and relentless blocking, but also being somewhat vulnerable to counters and sidesteps himself. The second inquisitor to be faced alone, Raziel represented a large step up in combat capability over the previously faced inquisitors. But with wraith Raziel's Health coil sustained by the Reaver, any damage was healed almost immediately, making the defeat of the inquisitor inevitable. Upon the death of the human Raziel, the final Epilogue cutscene revealed Raziel's ultimate fate as the Soul devouring entity trapped within the Soul Reaver and Kain's ignition of the Third paradox in an attempt to avert it. Notes *The battles against the warrior inquisitors in Soul Reaver 2 are arguably not true boss encounters. Unlike battles against major characters in other titles in the series, these battles were confined to a final 'rush' at the climax of the game, contained only regular combat with no puzzle element, conferred no special abilities upon completion and did not mark the end of 'levels' - apparently efforts by developers to avoid the artificial nature of levels and boss battles. The final rush arguably begins at the onset of Blade of Vengeance, as after leaving Janos Audron's Retreat Raziel is confronted by increasingly difficult battles against various Demons utilizing Combat barriers (each similarly marked by a cutscene), culminating in the battles with the inquisitors. Raziel's battle is something of an exception to this, as with Turel's battle marking the end of Chapter 9, Raziel's battle is classed as the only gameplay component to the Epilogue chapter - itself subtitled as Epilogue: the Final Confrontation and made up of the Raziel's battle and ensuing epilogue dealing with the Third paradox. The battle is the final act of gameplay in Soul Reaver 2. *In game files, textures used for the Sarafan Raziel are labelled as "razafan" and "mrd_rzfn" - the label "raziel" instead refers to the textures of wraith Raziel. File:SR2-Stronghold-ChapterHouse-RazStatue-EraA.PNG|The Sarafan Raziel statue in the Chapter House in the Pre-Blood Omen era SR2-Texture-Stronghold-JanosAudron.png|The Sarafan Inquisitor in the 'Heart of Darkness' mural *The Sarafan Raziel is memorialized with a statue in the Chapter House of the Sarafan Stronghold in the Pre-Blood Omen era. In this depiction, Raziel is depicted with a sword and he is armed as such when faced in battle. As the other inquisitors only have murals it is possible this reflects seniority (Raziel's statue is also missing in the Post-Blood Omen era, where the others feature eroded murals). Another depicion of the Sarafan Raziel is found in the Sanctuary area of the Sarafan Stronghold, where a stained glass window referencing the death of Janos Audron and extraction of the Heart of Darkness contains a depiction of the inquisitor responsible with armor similar to Sarafan Raziel - In this depiction he is armed with a Sarafan trident instead of the sword he carries in the battle against wraith Raziel, perhaps hinting at the versatile combat skills of the inquisitors. Raziel is perhaps the most prominent of the inquisitors observed infiltrating Janos Audron's Retreat in Nosgoth's early history seen wearing his helmet when Janos's chamber is breached and without the helmet he is the inquisitor to murder Janos, also having the most lines in the encounter. *With Sarafan Raziel's death, the Reaver can be seen drinking his Blood. After his death, Raziel's body was taken with the other inquisitors and interred in the Tomb of the Sarafan, providing the corpses for Kain to revive as a lieutenants a millennium later, keeping them ignorant of their human lives. Due to the final epilogue cutscene, Raziel's soul cannot be observed leaving his body like the other inquisitors. *Using the debug menu it is possible to skip passed the scene where Raziel gains the Reaver and battle the inquisitors unarmed without the healing effects of the Reaver, presenting a much greater gameplay challenge than the usual fight where wraith Raziel is invincible. This allowed the Spectral Realm to be entered in these locations and the Pikes (and swords) of the inquisitors to be recovered as weapons, but did not allow (wraith) Raziel to consume their souls, which were unaffected by attempts to devour them. *Raziel's Sarafan appearance contains subtle references to his later vampire and wraith forms seen in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance. Raziel's facial appearance and hairstyle is notably similar to those observed in his initial vampire form (seen in the Soul Reaver opening prologue). and his later wraith form His helmet was adorned with winged designs and he used golden wing-like pauldrons, foreshadowing the physical traits of the Vampire he would later become. He wears golden, gilded armor decorated with intricate lion-like patterns and deep red fabrics. Unlike other inquisitors which contain some reference to future clan symbols, Raziel had no unique symbols at all on his lower vestments, instead using the same pattern seen on ordinary Sarafan warrior swordsmen and Sarafan warrior pikemen, backed with a dark shade of grey (this is white for all the inquisitors except for Maleks which is black) . The red the color-coding of Raziel's armor also matching the red color of Razielim clan standards in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. The Sarafan Raziel also taunts wraith Raziel by telling him "You're a righteous fiend, aren't you?", . Perhaps reflecting the more humanoid appearance of his 'devoultion', Raziel is one of the few inquisitors with eyes which appear human-like when their helmet is worn. Legacy of Kain - Defiance p13-14.jpg|The depiction of the battle in the Defiance comic SR2-DC-FullCircle-010.png|The Soul Reaver 2 version *The order of the encounters in Soul Reaver 2 also closely matches the order of revival and ranking of the Vampire Council members in Kain's empire in the Soul Reaver era (and the boss order in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver), with Raziel the first created and highest ranked of the lieutenants, he is appropriately encountered last and is explicitly identified in stage directions as the "leader" , "head inquisitor" and "most formidable of the Sarafan commanders" ; or "Grand Inquisitor" in other sourcesLegacy of Kain Wiki:Spectraljin.com archives(with his armor appropriately displaying much more ornate and intricate detail than the other inquisitors) and he displayed seniority over the rest of the inquisitor group at least, though he is still on occasion referred to as a "Sarafan lieutanant". This ranking is not necessarily related to human age, with Raziel acknowledged as the youngest and Turel the oldest at the time of their human deaths. Some questions about SR2 Sarafan at DCabDesign (by Lexy), post #3 (by Daniel Cabuco) *The Legacy of Kain: Defiance comic features illustrations directly relating to this battle and its aftermath, with both incarnations of Raziel clearly depicted in combat. Though several enemy and boss characters are illustrated through the comics, relatively few of the boss encounters are directly referenced with both combatants in a manner such as this. Other boss encounters illustrated in the comics include the Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver battle with Melchiah, battle with Zephon and the cut battle with the Priestess - all featured in the Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver comic - one of Raziel's encounters with Kain (possibly intended to be the Pillars encounter or the Chronoplast encounter from Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver) is also depicted in the Defiance comic. Appearances * Soul Reaver 2 * Legacy of Kain: Defiance comic (depicted) See also *Chapter House *Sarafan warrior inquisitors *Raziel *Raziel (Defiance boss) *Epilogue References Category:Bosses Category:Soul Reaver 2 Category:Soul Reaver 2 bosses